“The problem is the cancer from the other properties. The problem is not that we don’t build a great house, it’s where it’s located.”

Turner needs help.

Jim Hurley remembers when he started the program.

“We had grandiose plans,” said the chairman of 20 years before he stepped down.

“We worked as hard as we could. We thought we could change the whole neighborhood. But we didn’t make a dent.”

What made the program possible under Gov. Christine Whitman was the Affordable Housing Act.

“That filled in the blanks between the cost of a house and what people could afford. But when the money dries up, it’s gone,” said Hurley.

Turner believes more could have been done with the neighborhood through good code enforcement.

“I can’t remember the last time I saw a police car drive by my office during the day,” she said from her 4th and Main Street office.

“There are towns in New Jersey that have made the fines for code violation so high — they’ve raised them three times.

“If you fine something so high that the landlord has to do something, then we’ve accomplished something.

“We can’t change the uglies. You drive down the street and see them boarded up.

“You put a family in a nice rental, they’ll keep it a nice rental. Put them in crap and it will stay crap.”

Turner started with the Philadelphia Housing Authority.

“A white chick in the projects,” she smiled. “I helped to get them grants to fix up houses. But I was in the projects all the time.”

She’s been with the Millville program since 1991.

“I’ve got three houses I can’t do anything with,” she said. “I had one under contract.”

But the father drove by the house one day and saw kids hanging out on the porch of his future home.

“He canceled his contract,” she said.

“Safety is our biggest hurdle,” said Turner. “And I put safety above everything. If you’re a mother, you want your kids to be safe. You wonder, what’s going to happen when the sun goes down?”

She has to sell all three houses to get money back — that’s the deal.

“The state calls the shots,” she explained.

“AHOME has enough money to stay in business for three months,” she said. “If we don’t sell these three houses today, we’ll run out of money before we realize any money from them.”

They have people walk in every day who want to buy a home.

“The problem is finding mortgageable people wanting to buy,” she said.

She pointed out that the 47 houses are worth $2.4 million in ratables for the city.AHOME’s budget is $180,000 a year.

Turner has met with at least three city officials.

“Give us any scraps you might have,” she asked.

“If we can sell these three houses, we can go for another four months,” she said.“By the way, who owns that big piece of crap on 4th Street across from where Dottie Wilkerson lives (at 4th and Oak streets)?” she asked suddenly.

Those kinds of places don’t help a neighborhood.

She wonders:

When do we get to the point where the people not doing the right things in a neighborhood have to worry?

Where they can’t sleep at night because they have to worry about somebody knocking on their door?

“I don’t know,” said Turner, “but I would follow that concept anywhere.”